


Secrets Secrets Are No Fun

by damsevendemigods



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen, Wally has anxiety, and iris is mom of the year even if she's not actually a mom, everyone is gay except it's mostly just hartley linda and wally, lots of angst probably, metahuman linda! because i have no shame and it's definitely inspired by cw flash, so she's not really that important, there is an oc but she's only there because i needed a bully
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-19
Updated: 2019-02-23
Packaged: 2019-10-31 17:23:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17853908
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/damsevendemigods/pseuds/damsevendemigods
Summary: unless you share with everyone.Wally has had a really, really bad week. His stupid anxiety is back, and it REALLY doesn't help that all of his friends are keeping secrets from him.Sometimes, keeping secrets is more dangerous than telling them.





	1. It All Goes Downhill From Here

**Author's Note:**

> whoops i wrote a fic based on a really dumb au i came up with again
> 
> here's the full summary because it didn't fit in the summary box: 
> 
> Wally West is having a bad week. No, wait, that’s not it. He’s having the worst week of his life. And he was struck by lightning once, so that should really tell you how bad this week has been. His best friends are keeping secrets from him. He’s getting bullied again, and it seems like his worst enemy knows his biggest secret—and I don’t mean that he’s Kid Flash. Not to mention, his stupid anxiety is back and it’s worse than ever. 
> 
> Hartley Rathaway is starting to think that maybe being a criminal was a bad idea. Who knew, right? It’s starting to cause a rift between himself and his best friends. He’s being blackmailed on two fronts: not only does he have to deal with an annoying high school bully knowing his best friend’s secret because of him, but he’s been getting texts from an anonymous number that doesn’t want Hartley’s attention, so much as they want the Pied Piper’s.
> 
> Linda Park is scared. And with good reason, too, because if you woke up one day with superpowers that seem to have come from nowhere, wouldn’t you be scared? The smart thing to do would be to go talk to her friends, because she knows they’d be able to help her, but there’s a little voice in her head telling her that it’s a terrible idea. So Linda’s keeping her mouth shut, and she’s pulling an Elsa. After all, if she keeps her hands covered, she won’t lose control of her brand new powers… right?
> 
> basically, i made wally and hartley and linda this sort of golden trio who have been best friends since forever and well... it spiralled into this mess. enjoy!
> 
> (also thanks to my best friend destiny for helping me edit this!)

Wally gripped his backpack as he jogged down the hill. Hartley was sitting on a rock at the edge of the woods, by the now-empty bus circle, clearly in the middle of a phone call. He looked about as uncomfortable as Wally currently felt. 

_ Relax. Don’t even think about school. It’s spring break. I don’t have to go back for two weeks, and by then, this will all have blown over, and I’ll be okay. I’ll be fine. _

“Come _on,_ Len, I told you, _I can’t do it today_. I need you to come pick–”   
“Hartley!” Wally called out to his friend. Hartley looked up, a little too quickly. His expression changed from shock to… something else. _Woah._ Wally tried to remember the last time Hartley had glared at him like that.

He came up blank.

“I’m on the phone, Wally,” Hartley muttered.   
“I don’t care.” Call it blunt, but Wally _really_ didn’t care. He had bigger problems to deal with at the moment. Speaking of those problems… “Why’d you storm out of GSA?” Wally adjusted the straps of his backpack as he spoke.

“I don’t want to talk about it.”   
“Hart, I’m just worried–” 

“Will you shut  _ up?” _ Hartley snapped, but stopped himself and spoke into the phone. 

“Not you, Len.” He looked back to Wally. “Can you just, like, leave me alone? For five minutes?” 

Wally shook his head, ignoring the request. “Why are you calling Len? I told you Iris is picking us up today. You don’t need a ride–”

Wally was cut off by a girl’s voice calling down the hill. He turned towards the noise, just in time to see Linda walking down the same path he’d followed. She looked annoyed. 

_ Not like she’s the first person to give you that look today.  _

“You know, Wally, when I told you to catch up with Hartley, I didn’t mean run out here and interrogate him without me.” Linda sighed as she approached her friends.   
“I’m sorry, Linda, I didn’t–” Wally cut himself off. There was no reason to apologize; he knew she was being sarcastic. But it didn’t really matter. 

_ Why are you feeling so anxious? They’re your friends, idiot. Nothing is wrong. _

“Apology not accepted.” Linda turned to Hartley and motioned for him to hang up the phone. Hartley narrowed his eyes. No getting out of this one.  
“Forget it, Len. I gotta go. I’ll talk to you later.” Hartley tucked his phone into his pocket. 

“Alright. So, Hart, you skipped again, and Madison said you’re not allowed in GSA anymore if you ditch again next week.” Linda raised her gloved hand and brushed her hair out of her face. “In other news, I’m gonna skin that bitch alive.”

“ _ What?  _ She can’t do that!” Wally couldn’t help it. Madison wasn’t even supposed to  _ be _ in GSA. “Hart, you are  _ not  _ getting kicked out. But whatever’s going on with you and Ma–that  _ bitch _ , you  _ have  _ to tell me. I can help you–” 

At that moment something moved in the corner of his eye, and Wally cut himself off. 

The world slowed. Wally watched as one of the bushes—probably a hundred feet into the woods—moved around as if had been pushed by something… or someone. And then, as if nothing had happened, everything sped up again.

_ Did that bush just move? … There’s no wind blowing right now. _

“What… did you guys see that?” Hartley and Linda shared a look of confusion. 

“See what?” Linda asked.

“I don’t… something moved in that bush. I know it.” 

Wally stepped towards the bushes.

Then a car pulled up in the bus circle. 

“Wally, come on.” Linda said, clearly over whatever weird thing Wally was doing. “It was probably a bird or something. Iris is here, we need to go.”

Wally gripped the straps of his backpack, and shook his head. He climbed into his aunt’s car, casting one last look towards the woods. 

_ Calm down. It’s just the anxiety acting up. Linda’s right, it probably was just a bird or something. Besides, what else could it be? _

Iris gave him a smile as he climbed in, and asked how his day was. 

Wally shrugged and tucked his hands into his sweatshirt pocket. “It was just school. Nothing much to say.”

_ Don’t let her see that your hands are shaking.  She’s got enough to worry about as it is, with Barry off-world on a League mission. She doesn’t need to deal with you having your third mental breakdown this month. … Not that she knows you’ve had two others. You couldn’t even trust Iris enough. What the hell is wrong with you? _

Wally stared out the window as Iris greeted his friends.

He was the only person in the group to notice something big and red fly over the school as they drove away.

_ What the hell are  _ they  _ doing here? _

 

The ride home was quiet, at least for the two people in the front seat. Linda had apparently decided that Hartley wasn’t telling her something, and had started an argument over whatever it was. Hartley clearly wasn’t in the mood for a conversation, and kept his focus on his phone. Linda demanded to know who it was he was texting, and was trying to steal his phone when Iris pulled over in front of Hartley’s house.

Or rather, in front of the gate to Hartley’s house, which was actually more of a mansion than a house. They still had to go through the gate to drop him off.

Sometimes Wally would forget that the Rathaways were rich, and then he’d drop Hartley off from school and they’d pull up in front of this gate and oh boy, would he remember. 

They weren’t Bruce Wayne rich (not many people were), but they were up there, and it gave Wally a headache to think about the fact that he had not only one, but  _ two _ best friends who had more money than freakin’ Bill Gates. Three, actually, but ever since Roy found out he was a clone… well, Roy and Oliver didn’t exactly get along these days, so Wally didn’t know what to think about that situation.

The difference was that while Bruce Wayne mostly used his money for good things like charity or (secretly) funding the Justice League, the Rathaways were the type of rich people to buy islands for no reason and splurge on fancy parties or paintings or whatever it was rich people cared about. If you asked Wally, he’d say that it was a gigantic waste what the Rathaways did with their wealth. And he knew Hartley would agree with him.

Hartley hated his parents, and he was convinced they hated him too. He believed that the only reason they kept him around was because accepting their openly gay son looked good on their reputations–not that they actually supported him when the cameras  _ weren’t _ around.

The Rathaways were probably single-handedly responsible for the stereotypes of the 1%. Rich? Check. White? Check. Homophobic, transphobic, racist, sexist, ableist, whatever else you can think of? Check it all off. They were the most conservative people Wally had ever met. Coincidentally, they were also some of the worst people Wally had ever met.

Which was why he wasn’t the least bit surprised when he figured out Hartley was the infamous Pied Piper. 

Hartley Rathaway was born deaf. He was gay. He was everything his parents hated and more, and that was what inspired him to go out and cause chaos with the rogues. 

That had been their first fight. Hartley had known Wally was Kid Flash already, but he hadn’t actually told anyone he was sneaking out of his house at night to commit crimes, and when Kid Flash first met the Pied Piper, it wasn’t pretty. Wally winced at the memory. 

 

_ He’d just gotten to the bank with Flash, only a few months into this sidekick thing. The rogues had been there, and Kid Flash had gotten hit by his cold gun and was frozen to the spot. He couldn't move. That was when he saw the guy.  _

_ There was a rumor going around at the time, that some kid with a flute was hypnotizing people and stealing things. Not money, but he’d broken into places like convenience stores and that comic book shop downtown. Some junk food, an X-Men comic, a pack of Pokémon cards. Mostly just harmless stuff, here and there.  _

_ Kid Flash watched as the guy _ _ — _ _ definitely a kid, the rumors were right, this guy wasn’t much taller than him–walked into the room, hands on his flute as if he was ready to play. Things slowed down. Kid Flash watched as he walked, and suddenly it hit him. _

_ Hartley had just gotten a new pack of Pokémon cards last week, after Wally  _ distinctly  _ remembered him complaining about his mother tossing all his old ones in the trash.  _

_ Hartley played the flute. _

_ Hartley had been complaining all week about being tired, claiming he was having trouble sleeping lately. _

_ But that wasn’t what convinced Kid Flash. He watched as the Pied Piper jogged towards Mirror Master, raising his flute to his lips. _

_ Kid Flash–no,  _ Wally _ himself–had seen Hartley Rathaway do that motion countless times before. He’d known the guy since kindergarten. He knew how his best friend moved. _

_ He didn’t actually mean to call him by his name, but it distracted the rogues long enough for Flash to disarm Cold and stop Mirror Master from escaping. _

 

Wally was shaken out of his thoughts by the car door slamming shut, far harder than usual. He glanced into the backseat to see Linda pouting. She tugged at her gloves as Iris started the car. She seemed almost nervous, though Wally couldn’t imagine why. Linda and Hartley _always_ argued like that. It was their thing. Why would Linda be so upset over it?  
_It’s none of your business. If they wanted you to know, they’d tell you. Or maybe if you ever actually paid attention to anything, you’d know what they were arguing about, and this would make more sense._

Wally figured he was better off staying out of it. He sank down in his seat, staring out the window as they started to drive away. He watched as Hartley walked up the steps to his house, eyes focused on typing away on his phone, as had become the usual over the last few days. 

_ And what’s up with that, anyway? He never texts anyone except me and Linda. He’s the only teenager in the world who prefers to make a phone call. What the hell is going on with him?  _

Finally, after what seemed like hours (it had barely been fifteen minutes, but Wally was a speedster and  _ god _ was time hard on him sometimes) at last they pulled into Wally’s driveway. He was out of the door before Iris could put the car in park. 

Linda climbed out after him, pulling on her backpack and adjusting her gloves. She turned to Iris and sent her a smile. 

“Thanks for the ride!” Why did her smile seem so  _ forced? _

_ And you would know about forced smiles, wouldn’t you. _

Wally ignored the thought and smiled too, holding his hand up to his best friend. High-fives were, after all, their Thing.

Linda lifted her hand, hesitated, and leaned in for a quick hug. She pulled away from Wally just as quickly, yelling out a quick, “Bye!” before jogging across the street to her house.

Wally watched her go. 

_ She doesn’t realize you know she hesitated. She forgot things go into slow motion for you. Why won’t she high-five you? What did you do? _

He looked back up at his aunt. Had she just said something to him? 

_ Pay attention, idiot.  _

Wally blinked. “What’d you say? I missed that. Sorry.”

Iris raised an eyebrow at his apology, but said nothing of it. They walked into the house. “I asked if Linda still has poison ivy on her hands. That’s why she’s wearing the gloves, isn’t it?”

Wally nodded. Iris glanced across the street.

“That’s strange. I didn’t think poison ivy lasted more than two weeks, tops. She’s been wearing those gloves for a month now.” 

It was a good point. Wally glanced back towards Linda, who was struggling to get the right key to open the door to her house. 

“Y-yeah. It  _ is _ strange.” 

Iris looked at him as they entered the house, eyes narrowed. “Are  _ you  _ okay? You’ve been quiet today. You’re  _ never _ quiet.” 

_ You  _ suck _ at hiding things.  _

“I’m fine, Aunt I. Just had a long week. And I’m  _ starving _ .” Wally sped into the kitchen, grabbing a bag of chips out of the cabinet. 

_ Way to deflect. She’s gonna figure it out, you know. _

Wally ran back into the living room, gave his aunt a quick hug, yelled something about doing his homework, and ran upstairs to his bedroom.

He closed the door and flopped onto his bed. He checked his phone, having neglected it the entire ride home. He needed to get out of his head. 

Three unread texts, all from Dick.  
_At least_ one _of my friends will tell me what’s going on._


	2. Blackmail: The Worst Type of Mail

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wally’s bad day gets so much worse, and he’s just surprised it took this long for him to break. Meanwhile, Hartley is being blackmailed by someone who claims to know a secret about Linda and isn’t afraid to threaten her life to get what they want.

Three texts.

That was all it took to convince Wally that his life was over.

 

_ Dick Grayson - 3 Unread Messages: _

“You get out of school at 2, right? B’s giving us a new mission, apparently we’re heading to Central. You can probably meet us once you’re free” (1:34 PM)

“Wait which high school do you go to Central High or Keystone High” (2:19 PM)

“We need to talk. Text me back NOW.” (3:26 PM)

 

Wally checked the time. 3:57 PM. Great.

_ Too late to reply “now.” But wait, all of your best friends are mad at you! That must count for something! _

Wally shut off his phone and groaned. If Dick really wanted to talk, he would’ve just texted him about whatever it was he needed to talk about. This was more of a “Wally, you did something wrong and Batman is mad and wanted you at Mount Justice twenty minutes ago so he can tell you why your entire existence is a mistake” kind of talk. 

This meant one other thing as well.

That thing he’d seen in the woods earlier? That had been his team. Wally assumed that since Dick had said that he could “meet them there,” they weren’t spying on Wally himself. And they had definitely been outside his school at dismissal. Dick asked him which school he went to. He had probably been wondering why Wally hadn’t walked by yet, even though most people had already left.

The team had been there, watching as everyone left. The only reason they would’ve stayed so long after the end of the school day would be if they hadn’t completed whatever it was they came to do yet. They only would’ve left after getting that job done.They left right as Wally got picked up. But if they weren’t there for him… 

They were there for Hartley.

And Dick was telling him to come to Mount Justice. Which meant that he was in trouble. The team would have to debrief the information they learned to Batman, and that information included the fact that Wally was on a first-name-basis with his rogues. It would’ve confirmed that Wally knew Hartley was Pied Piper (he’d asked Hartley why he was on the phone with Len, aka Leonard Snart, aka Captain Cold) and was still friends with him. It included Linda making a joke about Wally running–which  _ maybe _ could have been passed off as an innocent comment, but of course it wouldn’t be taken that way. A civilian knew Wally’s secret identity, and brought it up in front of a rogue. Batman was going to  _ murder _ him.

See, way back when the Justice League started, Barry had sort of neglected to let anyone on the League know that the rogues in Central knew his secret identity. The first time any of the rogues had tangled with the League, they didn’t mention knowing who Flash was, and they’d all just kind of agreed to keep that quiet. The rogues (with the exception of Captain Cold) normally kept to themselves and didn’t bother going outside of the Central City area. The League rarely came to Central anyway, because while he definitely wasn’t as bad as Batman, Flash was always kind of protective of the place. He’d work with anyone fine, but no other heroes really bothered going into Central to fight crime unless it was absolutely necessary.

No one on the league actually understood the relationship between the speedsters and their rogues. Hell, most people thought the speedsters got off easy. Neither Barry nor Wally ever bothered to explain any of it. Neither of them _wanted_ to explain it.   
Now Batman knew, though. And since Barry was conveniently off-world until next Tuesday, Wally would have to.

He really didn’t want to. But that wasn’t the real reason Wally didn’t want to face the other heroes.

_ They’d overheard  _ everything _.  _

Wally should’ve kept his mouth shut. He should’ve left Hartley alone when he asked him to. He should’ve dropped the subject. He should’ve waited in the classroom for those ten extra minutes Linda had taken to get ready to leave after GSA.

_ What took her so long, anyway? She never said. _

But he’d opened that big stupid mouth of his again and now his entire team knew his secret and they were gonna hate him and Batman would probably kick him off the team anyway so it’s not like it really mattered anyway butohm _ ygodtheyknowthey’renevergonnatalktomeagain _ they’regonnahateme _ heywhycan’tIbreatheohgodohshitI’mdying– _ “IRIS!”

 

* * *

 

Like everyone, Hartley made bad decisions from time to time. For example, deciding to become a criminal at age eleven and going out and stealing Pokémon cards as revenge for his mom throwing all of his away. Or befriending and eventually joining the Central City rogues in their efforts to take out  ~~ Hartley’s best friend’s uncle ~~ the Flash. 

This, though… this had to be the single worst decision he’d ever made in his entire life. 

Normally, when you get a text from an unknown number, you’re supposed to just block them, delete the message, and go on with your day and forget about it ten minutes later. 

However, messages from unknown numbers normally didn’t attempt to blackmail you into doing things for them because they were threatening your best friend’s life. 

Suffice it to say, Hartley was keeping secrets from his friends again. Not everyone; he’d told Len about it, who had taken one look at the number and said something about leaving him out of this so he didn’t get thrown back in Belle Reve. That  _ really  _ didn’t help at all.

But he was keeping this from Wally and Linda. His best friends. The very same best friends with whom he had made a pact with five years ago, that they would never, ever,  _ ever _ keep secrets from each other. But what was he supposed to tell them, exactly? 

“Hey, Wally, I keep getting messages from this weird number, who, judging from the stuff they’re telling me to do, and from Len’s reaction, are clearly criminals trying to recruit me–also a criminal–for their evil plans, and they’re also threatening Linda’s life because they know something dangerous about her and they said the only way to help her now is for me to do what they want and I just think that you, Kid Flash, are the best person to tell about this because there’s no  _ possible _ way telling a superhero about this possible supervillain's plan could backfire on me in any way.”

Um, no. Bad idea. Telling Wally would essentially mean telling the entire Justice League, and that was probably the most idiotic thing he could do in this situation. It wasn’t just about Kid Flash finding out; if Hartley told anyone about this, they’d kill Linda, and probably Hartley too once they figured out he was the one who leaked the information. Hartley knew Wally wouldn’t be able to live with himself if the two of them died. It would destroy him.

When Hartley had walked out of GSA earlier, he had played it off as being because he couldn’t deal with that bitch Madison’s tyrannical rule over the club anymore. To be fair, that  _ had  _ been  _ part _ of the reason he left. She was a nightmare, and Hartley honestly wanted to just use his flute to hypnotize her into taking a long walk off a short pier after all she’d done to the three of them since they’d met her; but in the end, all she was was a high school bully, and Hartley was so far beyond high school right now.

The real reason he had walked out was because he had gotten yet another text and he was so, _ so _ sick of it. 

Hartley was a rogue. He wasn’t a supervillain. He was barely even a criminal. With the few exceptions from when he was younger and first starting out, he never really even went out of his way to steal anything, instead only pulling jobs with the rogues. 

He didn’t  _ want _ to join the “big leagues,” so to speak. Supervillains like Lex Luthor or those freaks in Gotham, he wasn’t like them. He didn't want money or chaos or revenge (well, unless it was on his parents). He just wanted to get back at his parents for years of neglect and emotional abuse by ruining their reputations one arrest at a time. It was fun. And if it meant punching his best friend in the face every few weeks, then, well, Wally would get over it. Linda would laugh at them for being idiots. Barry would buy them all ice cream two hours later. It wasn’t that bad.

Then someone started sending him these texts. When Wally and Linda had gotten out of GSA, he had been on the phone with Len, trying to get out of going home with his friends. Linda had been on his ass all day about the amount of time he’d been spending staring at his phone. To be fair, she’d had a good enough reason. Hartley preferred phone calls over texting if he had the choice. It was just nice to be able to hear things, so he took advantage of that when he could. But he’d been so stressed about the person on the other side and what could possibly be wrong with Linda (did she even know something  _ was _ wrong?) that he just  _ had  _ to leave. He had to get away from them. He ignored Wally’s dejected expression as he stood up in front of everyone in the room, told that bitch Madison that he wished she would slam her face in a George Foreman grill, and slammed the door to the classroom as he walked out.

_ The bitch deserves it anyway, for everything she’s done to Wally. _

Then Len took way too long to pick up his phone, Wally had followed him out, and Hartley had glared at him, ignoring the ‘kicked puppy’ look on Wally’s face. Then Linda showed up, and, well. There they were again.

Hartley got  _ another _ text on the ride home. 

 

_ Unknown Number - 1 Unread Message: _

“It’s time. Meet at this location, tonight, at midnight. Bring Linda Park with you. You know what you need to do, Piper. Don’t be late.” (3:34 PM)

 

Linda, who was sitting next to him in the backseat of the car (Wally always got shotgun. He claimed if he didn’t sit there he would get carsick, but he always got carsick anyway because driving was “so SLOW and I’m DYING”), glanced over when his phone lit up. “Who’re you texting?” she asked. Hartley swiped the notification away before she could see it, turning his phone off and putting in his backpack.   
“No one. It’s just Len. You _did_ make me hang up on him, remember?” Lying was becoming a little too easy for Hartley.

“I don’t believe that for a second. If it was Len, you wouldn’t have hidden your phone. Who is it?” Linda reached over him and went for his backpack. He pushed her back. 

“Why do you need to know so badly?” Hartley snapped, his voice louder than he meant it to be. He noticed Iris glancing back at them, but Wally didn’t even seem to notice. He was staring out the window, eyes glazed over as if he was lost in his own head.

Wally had a habit of doing that, so Hartley wasn’t too worried.

“I’m just curious! And like I said, if it was Len you wouldn't have cared if I saw your texts. So unless you’re in some sort of Rogues group chat and you’re planning some big crime job—” (Okay, no reaction to that from Wally,  _ something  _ was up with him.) “—or whatever, then you’re definitely keeping something from me! And we all swore no secrets!  _ So who are you texting, Hartley? _ ”

Hartley had never been so happy to see the front gates of his parents’ house. 

“It’s  _ no one _ , Linda. I told you not to fucking–” 

“Hartley!”

“Sorry Iris— _ freaking _ —worry about it!” he tried his best to keep his voice low. 

They pulled up in front of the front steps. “Have a good weekend, Hartley!” Iris said as he picked up his backpack and flute case.   
Hartley shot a glare at Linda and completely ignored Wally as he got out of the car. 

“Thanks for the ride, Iris. See you.” Hartley took out his phone and reread the message.

This was definitely the worst decision he’d ever made. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> three things:
> 
> 1) When I cut Wally's part off in the first half of this, I was trying to imply he had a panic attack. I'm not actually going to write that, because although I DO have anxiety problems and I've had anxiety attacks before, I've never had like, a full on panic attack, and I'm not sure I could accurately portray one in writing, so I won't. You'll have to use your imagination for what happened, but basically Iris is gonna come find him and help him calm down and he'll be okay. Next chapter MIGHT have the aftermath of that.
> 
> 2) Again, I just wanna thank my best friend in the universe Destiny (sohotthateveryonedied here on ao3 and tumblr! she writes so much Good Shit TM go check her out) for helping me with this and also Destiny i love you
> 
> 3) Also: my tumblr is damthosefandoms if y'all wanna talk to me send me an ask or something i guess!


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